Why Athletes Are Champion Influencers

Athletes and advertising have been a gold-winning combination for decades. From Michael Jordan and Nike to Messi and adidas and, more recently, Usain Bolt and Persil, sports stars with their huge fan bases and healthy, aspirational lifestyles have long appealed to marketers. 

But where we’ve traditionally seen athletes on a pedestal - or podium - in marketing, social media has changed both audiences’ and brands’ relationships with sportspeople. We’re able to get closer to athletes, and marketers are seeing opportunities beyond the norm. And so, as we prepare for the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, what better time to dive into the world of athletic influencers?

According to Kantar, sports stars are certainly in the ascendance when it comes to TV advertising. “Sports stars are gaining ground in adland, with the proportion of global TV ads featuring acclaimed athletes doubling in the past five years to 18%. Meanwhile, the glow of Hollywood is beginning to wane, with film stars’ prominence dropping from 62% of ads featuring a celebrity in 2019 to 51% today,” says Lynne Deason, head of creative excellence at Kantar.

And that figure is just scratching the surface. With sports stars garnering colossal followings on social media, they also have incredible appeal as influencers.

According to research from M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, 44% of British Olympic fans claim to be more likely to purchase products from a brand that sponsors an athlete or team at the Games. “That’s hugely significant – but why?” asks Toan Ravenscroft, MD at M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment. “Firstly, because those athletes exist at the heart of the things those fans are most passionate about. Once you can tap into someone’s emotional triggers – be that an epic gold medal winning performance, or their story to get to where they are – then brands can unlock storytelling dynamite. Secondly, for those athletes that align with the right, natural and authentic partners, and carve a relevant, ideally long-term role – then the trust and familiarity build for all. Thirdly, the ability of athletes to utilise their own social media channels to reach fans and tell their own stories, makes them highly powerful. Finally, everybody loves a winner. Athletes at the top of their game have the kudos and credibility to command earned media interest and help spread brand stories.”

Aoife Moran is sports marketing lead EU at TikTok and for her the appeal of athletes is quite straightforward - and so powerful that the social media platform has even leveraged Olympians and Paralympians in its most recent creative ‘It Starts on TikTok’ campaign. “Athletes are aspirational,” she says, “they’re at the top of their craft, participating in high-stakes competition and are an inspiration, showing the art of the possible. Many of them have overcome challenges and have demonstrated unwavering commitment to their sport, which means they usually have compelling personal stories to tell. This was core to our narrative of our ‘It Starts on TikTok’ campaign. We wanted to show people that lifelong passions can start with just one moment.”

And the thing is, as non-football fans across Europe will be able to attest this summer, at certain points in the calendar, sports stars and athletes can be nigh on unignorable. James Baldwin, head of influence at Ogilvy APAC, calls this phenomenon ‘involuntary inclusion’. Indeed, over the next month, wherever we are in the world, we’ll be finding ourselves cheering on emerging national heroes from sports as diverse as artistic swimming and lacrosse. Resistance is futile.

“Whether people are interested in sports or not, it is impossible to not feel pride in the success of your national sports team in an event like the Olympics or World Cup. Results are everywhere, TV screens are erected in public spaces, games streamed at every eating establishment in hopes of drawing crowds, “ says James.

What’s truly unique when it comes to athletes as a category, compared to other brand spokespeople and influencers and collaborators like artists, pop stars and actors, is the visceral struggle of their chosen pursuit. They’re real life embodiments of the hero’s journey.

No wonder we feel such intense emotions around sport, as Kit Wilson at agency PrettyGreen reflects. “Athletes have a unique ability to connect emotionally with people. Taking the Euros as an example, the widespread joy (and heartbreak) across the country as we watched the men’s team on their journey through the tournament was astounding. It’s easy to see athletes as superhuman due to their feats within their field, painting them in a uniquely positive light, incredibly attractive for marketing. Brands are able to utilise sportspeople’s channels to interact with audiences whose imaginations have already been captured by the athletes they follow.” 

For Jason Schragger, chief creative officer at Saatchi & Saatchi Los Angeles and Dallas, that physicality takes on a particular salience in 2024. “I think everything that we know to be real is becoming less and less real. Movies are full of special effects and superheroes. Reality shows are becoming more scripted and more unreal, with huge prizes and crazy challenges. Sports are our dose of the real world. Humans vs. humans. You can’t binge a season in a weekend, you have to wait until they compete again,” he says. “ And because it is live and at a certain time, we all share the experience in community. We get to share our passion at the same time with all our friends, watching something that is real and authentic. And the more we crave that, the bigger fans we become. So, our new heroes, our new influencers, are the people who give us that thrill.”

And that realness just can’t be faked. Yes, higher profile sports stars are media trained, but that raw emotion of victory and loss is pure empathy fuel. That’s something that production agency CLICKON has seen up close. “Their talent, dedication, and resilience are on full display, making their victories and losses deeply personal for their fans. Unlike actors, their emotional expressions are genuine, stemming from real experiences and challenges,” says the team.

To an extent, those reasons cited above are as true now as they were 10 or 20 years ago. Athletes have always been aspirational, major tournaments have always swept even non-fans along and the raw joy and togetherness of live sports has always tapped into a primal part of our psyches.

But the relationship between brands, athletes and audiences are evolving, as are the specifics of the role that sports people can play.

First and foremost, social media has opened up the opportunity to work with athletes as influencers and it’s also allowed athletes to close the distance between them and their fans.

Aoife at TikTok explains, “Tiktok gives athletes a direct line to their fans and communities on a global scale - to an audience of over one billion! It transcends geographical boundaries, removes accessibility barriers, fostering an intimate connection between the community and the person that is the athlete.”

James Street, co-founder and co-CEO at creator specialists Whalar Group agrees. “In the past, they were just on our TV sets, but now athletes start out using social media so they can have a touch point with their fans off the field. With TV, they do not control how they come across but through social media, they can give more of themselves and their personalities.” 

Case in point, the current crop of Olympic athletes are all over their socials, giving us unprecedented access to both the Games and to the experience of being an Olympian. “One thing that occurred to me this morning and we are already seeing the start of is athletes arriving at the Olympic Village and using their TikTok and Instagram channels to take followers behind the scenes - it is really providing fans with a glimpse behind the curtain,” says Toan. “Outside of competition athletes have a lot of time on their hands so I expect this to be a real boon for athletes on TikTok as they create content to keep the vibes high in the camp.”

Ultimately, it’s allowed us to relate to them as humans rather than gods, and that, in turn, can also allow them to find new audiences who may not have come to them as sports fans. Aoife points to a series of sporty TikTokers who are doing this successfully: six-time Olympic medallist Max Whitlock OBE (@maxwhitlock) showing off his training routine; Paralympic basketball player Robyn Love (@robyn_love13) showing how she balances training with being a mother; and England footballer James Maddison (@jamesmaddison), who shares personal clips of him playing football with his son.

Those intimate human stories are the true stuff of drama, as any writer knows, and are catnip to audiences. “Before social media, we didn’t know a lot about our athletes. A couple of interviews before or after competition, and if they are really good, a documentary about them. Now we get to see and understand the pressure they are under in real time,” says Jason at Saatchi & Saatchi. “We see them live out their hopes and dreams. We see how hard they train. We see their teamwork and close connection to teammates. We get to ‘meet’ their husbands, wives or partners. We live their ups and downs with them. We are on their journey with them. We have become much closer to our athletes and it fuels the fandom we have for them and the sport.”

You don’t have to look far for evidence of this - as James Baldwin at Ogilvy APAC points out. Anyone familiar with an obscure American football player called, uh, Travis Kelce? “The recent phenomenon of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship, exemplifies this, catapulting Kelce's visibility beyond a best-in-class athlete into a new stratosphere. Interest in the Chiefs has also skyrocketed, with the team gaining more than half a million new fans this season, more than double the next team in the league.” 

Talking of Travis Kelce, Lauren Wright, VP of brand strategy and PR company KWT Global argues that this humanising effect offers even greater flexibility for the kinds of brands that can benefit from their connection with athletes. “While we’re eager to consume intel on how they train, what they eat to stay healthy, and how they scored that goal last week - they can also speak to everyday life as consumers themselves. People around the world are interested in the type of performance underwear Travis Kelce wears on the field (shout out to Tommy John), while at the same time caring deeply about where he went to dinner last week with Taylor Swift,” says Lauren. “This allows for a greater degree of flexibility in the types of brands and narratives that any given athlete can feel confident representing.”

Those human stories don’t just live on social media, however. Over the past five years, we’ve seen the growth of sport docuseries that have lifted the lid on the drama behind the scenes, while keeping fans satisfied between seasons. While lacking the intimacy of social media, they satisfy audiences’ needs for more complex narratives and have made stars of the most obscure figures. Take Paul Mullin, the striker who was hired to flagging Welsh football team Wrexham and catapulted to fame in the show Welcome to Wrexham, (which follows celebrity owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s attempts to turn the club around). He’s now got 202,000 followers on Instagram.

For James Baldwin, those docuseries have had a fascinating impact. “Documentaries like ‘Break Point’, ‘Drive to Survive’ and ‘The Last Dance’ have played a crucial role in the evolution of sports, showcasing athletes as complete personalities with emotional depth, diverse interests and everyday difficulties like the rest of us. This narrative shift is crucial in an era where physical prowess is just one aspect of an athlete's identity.”

One might be tempted to argue that this up-close-and-personal connection we’re seeing with the athletes on social media or in these expanded streaming series as little more than an update of the tell-all tabloid journalism and gossip that’s long followed sports stars - UK readers will remember the drama of footballers and the WAGs. James argues that this isn’t the case. “The behind-the-scenes window is a first-hand, much more relatable view of their personalities often told in first person. That adds a level of truth and trust that does not exist with tabloid gossip. Trust is the foundation of influence.”

What’s also changed over the past decade is that the profile of athletes the brands are keen to work with has also evolved and expanded. In particular female athletes are seeing more traction and previously sidelined sports like women’s football and the WNBA are also receiving mainstream coverage. 

“I think we are seeing a massive surge in women’s sports and the athletes are finally starting to get the rewards they have long deserved. Women athletes from many sports are now perfect ambassadors for many brands,” says Jason.

Paralympians are also increasingly likely to be featured in brand campaigns and are becoming well known personalities. Paralympians are starring in campaigns for the likes of Toyota, TikTok, ALDI and Bupa in the run-up to Paris 2024 and some former Paralympians have become major celebrities in their own right, appearing in campaigns outside of the timespan of the games, in the UK swimmer Ellie Simmonds is a prime example. 

"London 2012 really was a step change here," says Toan Ravenscroft. "Since then, Paralympians have rightly been far more prominent in brand agreements, and this reflects the changes in our society. Positive representation is expected and we have certainly seen – and recommend – balance in the athlete partners across Olympians and Paralympians, as well as genders. The work Channel 4 have delivered this time feels like another step change in the way Paralympic athletes are represented."

This more inclusive, diverse and rounded understanding of athletes combined with platforms that put them in control also allows them to lead on important social issues and conversations around mental wellbeing. 

“In an industry that prioritises physical health, athletes are increasingly vocal about mental health, a topic once considered taboo in sports,” says James Baldwin. “Athletes have not been shy to share their struggles openly and transparently, going as far as to even take time away from the field or court. Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Coco Gauff have used their platforms to foster dialogue on mental health, race and gender.”

Athletes are becoming more confident about making political and social statements, for example Kylian Mbappé’s criticism of France’s rising far right or Marcus Rashford’s campaign for free school meals. That might scare some marketers away but for the right partner, it can create powerful connections. Lynne Deason points to the partnership between UK supermarket ALDI and the aforementioned Marcus Rashford, which has seen the store pledge 10 million meals to families facing food poverty, and has seen Rashford pop up in a couple of campaigns for ALDI.

“Simply featuring a famous face doesn’t guarantee an ad will cut through,” she says. “Advertisers need to understand what the individual is really known for – within and beyond their sport – and create a narrative which supports the emotional response they naturally elicit, while keeping the brand front and centre. Aldi’s 2021 ‘A Christmas Carrot’ ad nailed this, using Marcus Ra(di)shford’s reputation for tackling child poverty to help retell the well-known festive tale in a way which didn’t overshadow the brand. It scored in the top 6% of all ads in our database on both enjoyment and distinctiveness.”

One significant opportunity that businesses looking to work with athletes might want to consider is co-creation of new products or brands. Keenly aware that their window of opportunity to earn on the field is limited, sports people may be looking to translate their social following into a market.

This isn’t new to the marketing world - indeed it’s the foundation of one of the most famous athlete-brand relationships in all of marketing. But at Whalar, they’re explicitly looking to develop this. “This goes for the creator too but we want to see more and more brands co-creating with athletes," says James Street."Often if you are a small brand you would be able to give equity or revenue splits. The best example of this is of course Air Jordan and we have all heard about the results of that collaboration. A big part of our job at Whalar Group is going to be advising athletes on their social strategy as well as fielding opportunities to co-create with brands or even turn their own ideas into businesses.”

The sports superstars are already all over this opportunity. David Beckham, of course, has Haig Club gin and has so many interests that he also co-founded the company Beckham Brand Holdings and Cristiano Ronaldo’s CR7 brand puts out fragrances and underwear and can be found in high street retailers.

But this opportunity isn’t just limited to mainstream megastars. Nigel Sylvester was the first BMX-er to have his own Air Jordan - and the worlds of BMX and skateboarding are rich with athletes doing tie-ins and co-collaborations, particularly in the world of fashion. Indeed skater-founded and owned apparel brands have long been a great example of how athletes with passionate communities can build their own businesses, one just needs to think of the likes of HUF (founded by Keith Hufnagel ). 

With their lean-forward drive to succeed, it’s perhaps unsurprising that athletes are itching to co-create, collaborate and innovate with brands or even start their own thing. “Athletes are no longer sitting back and being asked to just stand and deliver something, the top athletes act as brands themselves, influencing and shaping the output,” says Toan Ravenscroft.

Working with athletes can bring a lot to your brand. Whether you’re collaborating with them as influencers, recruiting them to front an ATL campaign or a mixture of the two, this more connected, human context influences how brands should approach that relationship.

When you’re working with an athlete with an engaged audience, you really need to approach the partnership with respect. Toan Ravenscroft says we’re athletes are emerging as channels in their own right. “When we look at how we will connect a piece of branded athlete-led content, we will think about the earned-owned-paid model, but primary in a lot of that will be tapping into the athletes’ own channels to carry it organically and legitimately to their followers,” he says. “They know their audience better than anyone, so it’s up to brands to understand that the best results can come from allowing a bit of creative input and then unlocking the true power of the athlete’s channels for the content they are creating.”

This new environment also allows for a greater nimbleness and for brands that can move fast enough, they can make sure their partnerships make the most of hot topics or memes.

“While big brand deals used to be months or even years in the making, today partnerships are evolving at lightning speed to ensure the brand can effectively capitalize on trending conversations or topics involving their star talent,” says Lauren Wright. “When New York Giants player Justin Pugh organically introduced himself as “straight off the couch” during his game time intro – home furnishing brand Lovesac best known for their modular couches was quick to jump into action, securing a multi-pronged deal with Pugh which included rebranding a classic product online, representing the brand on Radio Row, and hosting a consumer-facing sweepstake.”

At the risk of the stating the obvious, you have to make sure that you are working with the right sportsperson. What makes someone the ‘right’ person for a partnership may be different in 2024 compared to previous decades.

“Athletes are fresh, healthy, ambitious people with strong media training and often a limited time to earn from their sport. However, with social media it’s not always the best or the gold medal winner who can help brands connect to their fans,” says Jason. “It’s more about aligning with the story that best represents the narrative the brand is trying to tell. Brands can find sports that might not normally be associated with them and still find a common connection that people will believe in.”

For James Street at Whalar, a real brand connection trumps working with the biggest star possible. “If you have the budget for a megastar, that’s great. But, I would only work with someone who genuinely loves my brand. If they are not into it and they are doing it for a pay day then I would find someone who does love it. I would wrap my arms around them as much as possible.”

And make sure you do your homework on that ‘genuine’ connection, Lauren Wright wisely advises. “Identify an athlete partner who authentically connects with and believes in your brand, and ensure they aren’t “authentically” endorsing a new brand each month.”

Indeed, many experts say that the beauty of the current landscape is that partnerships with less famous athletes who play for less mainstream or more niche sports can connect brands with all sorts of audiences. From rock climbing to pickleball, the world is rich with sports with deeply engaged communities beyond the more obvious football, F1 and basketball.

James Baldwin at Ogilvy shares a plethora of examples of brands that are getting creative and curious, and really supporting into hyperlocal and niche communities, such as NIke's sponsorship of the China High School Basketball League, Skoda's decision to make a stand around the fact there's no official women's Tour de France, Honda's Campus All-Star Challenge (a quiz competition for  historically Black colleges and universities) and the Yonex-Sunrise India Open, which supports junior badminton in India.

“One of the key benefits of working with athletes from lesser followed sports is access to niche audiences,” says Aoife. “These athletes have gained a dedicated following of genuine supporters with common interests, as opposed to athletes with celebrity status that reach a much broader audience segment. This creates rich opportunities for brands to target and engage with highly specific audiences. We’ve seen this on our ‘It Starts on TikTok’ campaign, featuring UK athletes including Lauren Steadman MBE, Oliver Lam-Watson and Delicious Orie.”

One really successful example of this is Samsung’s relationship with British Olympian skateboarder Sky Brown and the skaters of Skateboard GB. As the brand has got closer to the community, they’ve found that it’s taken them to spaces and audiences that they never could have imagined.

“One of the interesting learnings I took from skateboarding is, one, [there’s a] very, very captive audience, so super passionate about their sport. The second thing - these are my personal learnings, as well as the Samsung learning - is the fact that you've got people that probably are doing another job. They're doing something else. They could be creating a fashion brand through skateboarding. They could be doing loads of things. Makes them very interesting to have to have conversations with. They could be a musician or a DJ as well as a skateboarder. And they are finding their art and making their art as big as possible. But what happens with that is you've got very different audiences that are coming together, and these audiences want to talk in a really authentic, unusual way that brands normally can't reach but you have to allow them to have freedom in that space.”

Another benefit of looking beyond the biggest names is that you can access areas where there’s simply less brand noise and competition for attention.

“Typically, the larger the fan base, the larger the brands it attracts. It’s why the Super Bowl attracts all the brands for their in-game advertising. The problem with that is you are trying to stand out in a sea of other sponsorship. To get more impact, I think it's best to think smaller and really stand out or to really own a category,” says James Street, pointing to apparel brand Alo’s work with influencers in the yoga and pilates space, even working with Peloton instructors. “I think it’s more effective to go much deeper into a less popular sport than it is to go shallow on the most popular sports.”

Similarly, instead of clamouring for established names in a field, brands can also consider partnering with younger athletes at the start of their careers. “Many young athletes go to the Olympics and rise in prominence. Bring them in early and show your support for youth,” says James Baldwin at Ogilvy. “If you’re lucky, they’ll grow with you.”

That’s something that Under Armour have deliberately tried to do with their campaign created by CLICKON. “It highlighted lesser-known athletes in sports like volleyball and women’s football, emphasising UA’s focus on the future of sport and not just the major leagues. This approach showcased Under Armour’s commitment to supporting emerging talent and promoting inclusivity in sports,” says the team, who also points out that focusing on youth sport isn’t the only way to make hay outside of the normal age range. Their ‘Story of My Number’ series involved working with retired Yankees players to tap into audience nostalgia.

Jason Schragger agrees that a longer term view of athlete relationships is important. “Brands also need to invest in helping grow sports just as much as using athletes once they are famous. Being there for the journey has become really important for people to believe in the connection between the athlete and the brand.”

And that believability is key. In this more intimate, personal landscape, authenticity is non-negotiable. Kit Wilson at PrettyGreen says that brands should think of the relationship with the athlete as a two-way exchange, and consider how the brand aligns with the values of the athlete, rather than trying to squash the athlete into their brand world. That’s something that the PrettyGreen team did when they worked with diverse athletes ahead of the Paris 2024 Paralympics for healthcare provider Bupa’s Picture of Health campaign.

“The overarching takeaway should be that brands shouldn’t shoehorn talent into their campaigns, but rather work with the athletes at the heart of the partnership,” says Kit. “We see this across our sector; influencer marketing has seen thousands of influencers holding a product, reading a script, and promoting something that does not correlate with their personal brand, or at least the advert fails to showcase it. Compare that to brands that are willing to take the creative direction of creators, incorporating products authentically into their content. We see increased views, engagements and click-throughs skyrocket. Audiences understand talent needs to make money through brand partnerships, but this doesn’t mean they should have to be bored by it.”

That’s also the approach that Samsung has taken with its involvement in the skateboarding community. “In the skateboard community, we’re not coming in with a brand and slapping our brand everywhere. It's absolutely not. It's completely the opposite,” says Annika Bizon. “It's about feeling like we are part of the community and helping.”

In pursuit of authenticity, brands have to understand that while content particularly on social media may be quicker and more raw than those iconic, expensive TV and cinema ads that feature a pantheon of sports gods, there is nothing disposable about the relationships they form with athletes. “Try to foster longer term relationships with partners,” says Aoife, “this proves the authenticity of the partnership. Don't underestimate their audiences, they have likely been following your talent for a while, so anything inauthentic will be easily recognisable to them. Credibility is built through consistency and this needs to be done over a period of time in order to have an impact.”